Page 34 - MetalForming November 2010

Tooling Technology TOOLING BY DESIGN
PETER ULINTZ
a job at Anchor Tool & Die (now the Anchor Manufacturing Group) during a labor strike at my former employer. The owner of Anchor, Ed Pfaff, hired me as a young die maker simply based on my word that I would not leave once the labor strike ended. As promised, I did not return to my former employer, but I did leave Anchor after three months to take a position in a die-cast shop. I was eager to continue learning and I saw this as an opportunity to acquire new skills and expand my knowledge in the broad- er field of manufacturing.
Nine months later, the die-cast shop filed for bankruptcy and I once again found myself at Anchor’s door step looking for a job. Although business was slow at the time, Ed took a chance and hired me back. Two year’s later I left again to pursue an education in engineering.
In 1989 I responded to an ad in the local paper for a tooling engineer at Anchor. I was attending school at night in order to get into engineering. I thought I had left Anchor on some- what good terms, so I decided to apply for the position. (I was naïve, how good can it be when you leave twice?) Ed made it quite clear that he had never hired anyone back a third time, but he decided he would take a chance. I’ve been with Anchor ever since.
In 1997 I met Stuart Keeler at his three-day seminar at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Throughout the seminar I wondered why the material Stu was presenting had never been a part of my formal tool and die training. Stu helped me see that traditional tool and die training was, for the most part, all about “how” to build stamping dies. In contrast, he was teaching the “whys” (the science) behind metalforming. I was really upset—almost angry—that I
Peter Ulintz has worked in the sheetmetal-forming industry since 1978. His background includes tool and die making, tool and process engineering, engineering management and product develop- ment. Peter also operates the web- site www.ToolingbyDesign.com, a source for the transfer of modern metalforming and tool-and-die technology, and which promotes the use of “Performance-Based Die Engineering Strategies.”
Peter speaks at PMA seminars and roundtables focusing on tool and die design, die maintenance, deep drawing, stamping simulation, tool- ing for stamping high-strength steels and problem solving in the press shop.
Peter Ulintz
pete.ulintz@toolingbydesign.com www.toolingbydesign.com
Count Your Blessings
From time to time it is essential to reflect on where we have been in our careers and how we got where we are today. It is important because none of us could have succeeded without signifi- cant contributions from others.
For me, there have been many who have unselfishly shared their experi- ences, ideas and philosophies to help further my career. But there have been four men that have had the greatest impact on my career.
The first was the journeyman die maker I served most of my apprentice- ship under, Hans Valentin. Hans was a German die maker with a strong Euro- pean work ethic who demanded dedi- cation and attention to detail. I, on the other hand, was a long-haired, motor- cycle riding 20-year old who barely graduated from high school, and was more interested in working on his drag racing car than working on dies.
The impact Hans had on me was not so much what I learned from him technically, though it was much; it was the fact that he saw potential in me that I did not see in myself. It would have been easy for him to pass judgment based on my appearance and my indif- ferent attitude toward my work. Hans would say to me on numerous occa- sions, “You have to come back to work now” after catching me day-dreaming at the race track.
Hans could have made life difficult for me, perhaps enough for me to leave the trade before I could finish my apprenticeship, had he chosen to judge my appearance and indifference. He could have decided that I wasn’t inter- ested enough in the trade and that I didn’t have what it takes. He easily could have given up on me. But he didn’t.
Six years later, in 1985, I applied for
32 METALFORMING / NOVEMBER 2010
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